Turkey’s energy watchdog ‘creates’ cheaper natural gas for consumers
ANKARA
“A decision has been taken by our board to enable our consumers to get cheaper gas. Upon this decision, a total of 69 gas distribution companies will be able to meet their gas demand from the national gas grid, BOTAŞ,” said EPDK head Mustafa Yılmaz, as quoted by daily Hürriyet.
According to the Natural Gas Markets Law No. 4646, the gas distribution companies, at maximum, can meet 50 percent of their gas needs from BOTAŞ. With the new EPDK decision, they will able to meet all of their needs from the grid.
“We saw that some of the distribution companies met their remaining gas demands by paying higher prices than the BOTAŞ prices, thus selling their gas to consumers at higher prices,” he said, explaining the EPDK’s reasoning. Now, he added, “none of these companies can claim that they meet their gas demands with [higher-priced gas] from elsewhere when setting high prices for consumers as they can purchase all of their gas from BOTAŞ,” Yılmaz added.
He noted that the EPDK will track whether these companies apply to BOTAŞ to secure a cheaper gas supply.